It's Official, Steam Coming to Linux

We recently touched on one way of being a Linux gamer. Recent news that Valve Software will soon be releasing a Linux client promises to provide another option for Linux gamers. The news could not come at a better time as the world will shortly focus on gaming with the upcoming, industry-only E3 conference, the crown jewel of the gaming industry.

While there are still no details on the list of game titles that will be available, the announcement alone is reason for any Linux gamer to get excited. Steam is a content delivery system for gamers which allows you to buy and download game titles and related media, once you have the client installed.

This journey started three years ago, in September 2007, with a job posting by Valve Software for a Senior Software Engineer where one of the responsibilities was to "port Windows-based games to the Linux platform." Steam was unveiled to the public on March 22, 2002 at the Game Developer's Conference. Valve Software approached both Microsoft & Yahoo about partnering with them in building the platform but both declined, forcing Valve to develop the content delivery system from scratch. In March of this year, Valve announced that Steam, which had only been available on Windows, would also be available on Mac OS X. On May 12th, Steam for Mac was released to the public with over 50 games available for the client. Valve sweetened the pot by making Portal a free download (until May 24th), for both Mac and Windows clients. Shortly after the Steam for Mac OS X announcement, Phoronix broke the story by finding Linux-related references in the beta client of Steam for Mac. Since then, Valve has also confirmed that it will make Steam available to Linux users in the coming months.

Be sure to check back, as we will be having an in-depth look at the Steam on Linux client as soon as it is released.

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Miguel Hernandez is the Founder & Head Geek at the OpenMindz Group, an IT consulting and web development firm in Los Angeles, California.

Be sure to check back, as we will be having an in-depth look at the Steam on Linux client as soon as it is released.

I'm checking back... any update? Oh wait. I bet you feel a little silly for adding the "official" keyword to this bit of traffic bait, especially now that Steam is *officially* not coming to Linux any time soon.

Just because the Daily Torygraph in the UK reported it doesn't make it so. It's just as possible that Valve may have started the Linux client development and given up. I would suggest that a month from the Mac version being released having no announcement from Valve suggests they're have technical difficulties. I desperately want this but I'll believe it when I see it.

I actually tried, back in May. Not sure if I just pegged the wrong person or what-not but they've yet to respond. This is par for the course as they're well known for always keeping it hush hush- Mac version was long rumored & there was evidence (as with Steam for Linux). They kept denying it, then they made an announcement & 2 months later bam!

Miguel Hernandez is the Founder & Head Geek at the OpenMindz Group, an IT consulting and web development firm in Los Angeles, California.

This was reported a while back by phoronix, but without a legitimate source. I am not aware of any press release regarding this, so do you personally have inside information? I am aware of the linux client files found and I have read the articles jumping the gun and calling a linux client "official." It is hardly "official" if there has been no official announcement.

Shoddy reporting like this is the reason that I have stopped reading phoronix. I hope that the Linux Journal is not moving in the same direction.

While true there is no word from Valve on this, a group in the Valve community got a few bits of what would be the login screen for a linux client. So it's there, just Valve is pulling a Reggie Fils-Aime on us.

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